


99 Problems

by dandelion_clock



Series: Cry for the Moon [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 01:56:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15353664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelion_clock/pseuds/dandelion_clock
Summary: Of all the problems Sirius Black has, Remus Lupin is both the worst and the best.





	99 Problems

Of all the problems Sirius Black has, Remus Lupin is both the worst and the best. 

Sirius met James Potter on the Hogwarts Express, and it was _brilliant._ Running into someone so smart, so funny and so fearless, just like that. Someone who thinks, in so many ways, exactly like Sirius does. 

Remus, though, he didn’t notice until their first evening in the Gryffindor common-room. A small boy hiding behind an enormous copy of _Hogwarts: A History_. A pale, peaky face and a soft button nose, and floppy brown hair falling into big, blue, inexplicably haunted eyes. 

It did something very odd to Sirius's insides. 

Luckily James, because he’s an absolute whizz, was more than happy to take Remus under their shared wing. 

Somehow they picked up Peter as well, although Sirius has never been sure quite how. Peter just started tagging along, following James with a star-struck gaze, and - well, James _is_ an absolute whizz, but Sirius will admit that his best friend is a bit of a sucker for hero-worship. 

Anyway Sirius has plenty of problems. Gryffindor's lagging ten house points behind Slytherin, Professor McGonagall’s threatened to ban him from Quidditch if he gets one more detention, and Pringle the caretaker has confiscated his Gobstone collection. 

Then there’s his family, which is a problem he tries not to think about. 

But. Remus. 

Part of the problem with Remus is that Sirius can’t _not_ think about him. It’s something he carries around all the time, a funny mixture of exhilaration and longing that’s almost...well, _soppy_ , if he’s honest. It’s kind of embarrassing. 

It’s quite possible that James has noticed, but one of the many things that make James the _best_ is that Sirius can rely on him never, _ever_ to mention it. 

Because Sirius would eat bubotuber puss before he’d tell anyone, even James, how the curve of Remus's neck can make his stomach twist. Pale and smooth, artlessly exposed, as his bends over his Transfigurations homework. 

It’s kind of embarrassing, and more than a bit frightening. 

More troublesome, in some ways, than the other aspect of the Remus problem. 

The question of what Remus isn’t telling them. 

Why he so frequently disappears, sometimes for days, and why none of the teachers seem to notice. Why he’s always so pale, even now that it’s summer, with circles like coffee-stains under his eyes. What makes him occasionally tense and snappish, and why he’s always, _always_ (Sirius is quite sure of it by now) afraid. Not of the dark, like Gideon Prewett, or of Peeves, or Pringle, or even Professor McGonagall. It’s something more real, Sirius thinks. Something properly dangerous. 

One of Sirius's biggest problems is that he can never resist a challenge. 


End file.
